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Tolls

Michigan does not have toll roads, which is a problem for many of the MI-based Autoblog staffers when traveling out of state. We simply don't acknowledge E-Z Pass or think all that much about toll booths, because we just don't deal with them at home, and when highway hypnosis sets in it's easy to accidentally head through an E-Z Pass barrier. To a degree, then, we're able to sympathize with a 33-year-old Washington, DC man, who was dinged for repeatedly skipping out on the toll booths.

One fact seems indisputable: Americans have come to hate taxes and any suggestion by a politician to raise them is tantamount to political suicide. The problem is that public infrastructure requires funding – and lots of it. Critics of this disparity would argue that a lack of political will to raise fuel taxes has left roads, bridges and tunnels across America crumbling in recent decades.

One fact seems indisputable: Americans have come to hate taxes and any suggestion by a politician to raise them is tantamount to political suicide. The problem is that public infrastructure requires funding – and lots of it. Critics of this disparity would argue that a lack of political will to raise fuel taxes has left roads, bridges and tunnels across America crumbling in recent decades.

As you may have noticed when filling your tank, the plan for a gas tax holiday put forward by presidential candidates from both party brands, never came to fruition. The idea had been suspend an 18¢ per gallon federal tax on fuel from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Of course the fact that this would have saved average drivers a whopping $28 had little if anything to do with the lack of movement on bills from both Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton and Republican Sen. John McCain. It turns out the